Another New Orleans police officer scrutinized: An editorial

The list of New Orleans police officers being scrutinized by federal investigators is growing again. That's a disturbing, though not entirely unexpected, reminder of how deep the department problems appear to run.

"I understand what they think happened," attorney Frank DeSalvo said of prosecutors. "But it isn't what happened."

Mr. DeSalvo declined to discuss details, saying no crime was committed. "If the government wants to indict him, then he'll tell the jury what happened," he said of his client.

This much, though, is already clear: Mr. Glover was shot Sept. 2, 2005, near an Algiers strip mall, and a vehicle with his body in it was burned and abandoned on the Mississippi River levee.

A good Samaritan said he drove the bleeding Mr. Glover to a makeshift police station on the day of the shooting. The witness said several officers then took the car and drove away with Mr. Glover still in the back seat. The burned vehicle and Mr. Glover's charred remains were found weeks later.

Investigators suspect that then-New Orleans Police Officer David Warren, who left the force in 2008, shot Mr. Glover. In addition, Capt. Jeff Winn and Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann are suspected of taking part in the incineration of the car. Officer McRae now becomes the fourth NOPD member named as a subject of the investigation. Prosecutors should aggressively continue to pursue this case -- and severely punish anyone who may have broken the law.

Mr. Glover's death is among the most disturbing and gruesome post-Katrina incidents being investigated under multiple civil rights probes of the Police Department. They include the probe of police officers killing unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge and trying to cover up the shootings.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez has called the NOPD "one of the most troubled departments in the country."

That's a true and sad distinction, and that's why the force's clean up must continue in earnest.